Costa Pinheiro’s Queens

Abstract

Conceived as a pictorial assemblage that merges the ingenuity of playing cards with the solemnity of coats of arms, Costa Pinheiro’s series Os Reis (1964-1966) constructs a poetic game that blurs the lines between legend, memory, and history. Depicting figures from the first two dynasties of Portuguese royalty, the series includes three legendary queens—Inês de Castro, Leonor Teles, and Philippa of Lancaster—each representing distinct forms of medieval queenship. Rather than reinforcing traditional portrayals such as the Beloved Queen, the Treacherous Queen, or the Perfect Queen Mother, this study focuses on the mental images that have emerged around these figures, separating them from their historical realities and embedding them into collective memory. Drawing from Fernão Lopes, Garcia de Resende, Luís de Camões, and Fernando Pessoa, this chapter proposes an intertextual and reinterpretative reading that subverts conventional queenly iconography and commemorative statuary, giving rise to a personal, poetic, and experimental visual language.